Today Rodborough’s vicar Peter Francis has been speaking on Radio Gloucestershire about the special stained glass windows in Rodborough Church. We are honoured to give home to the ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ window. Rev Awdry spent his retirement years in Rodborough from 1965. His wife Margaret was well-loved in the community and ran the infant welfare clinic at The Endowed School. After her death in 1989 Rev. Awdry commissioned the window in tribute to her. He died in 1997 before it was installed.
Equally special is the window in the Lady Chapel. This commemorates 2nd Lieutenant Norman Steel who was killed, aged 20, at Passchendaele in 1917 and all those Rodborough men lost in WW1. The window was installed in 1939 after the outbreak of the Second World War. The dove perhaps a hope for peace. The window by Mr Henry Payne of Amberley was the gift of the executors of the late Mrs Steel.
